Rhythm of Life

Life seems to fall into a pattern on a regular basis.  This AM during my cycling commute into work, I saw the children lining up on the side of the streets waiting for the yellow school bus.  As if by magic, not seen or heard from for months, I spy the familiar school bus pulling into our neighborhood.  It was calming for some reason.  The crisp morning air, school buses and kids…life was falling into a rhythm once more.

But then 5 minutes later, the sound of sirens cut my calm meditative state.  Not one, not two, not three, but four patrol cars go blazing by me the other way going no less than 100+ mph.  In some other cities, this may not be a big deal but in Bozeman this is probably the entire fleet of on call officers.  Then the chills went down my spine.  I heard the ambulance trailing quickly behind.

I thought of all the kids getting ready for the first day of school.  I prayed that whatever the emergency, it didn’t involve any kids.

The Magic of the Cardboard Box

My wife’s recent post on kids and cardboard boxes has to be a child truism, about as rock solid as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

Tea Party

Last week my 5 year old daughter invited me to a tea party.  Her invitation rocked.

Simple and phonetically perfect in every way.  Below was the text:

DAD

TEEPRDEEY

Priceless!

Your First Bike

Remember your first bike!  The freedom.  As a kid, your bicycle was a monumental step forward in fun and autonomy.  So when did we stop enjoying the bike?

I don’t think most of us ever did.  Other things got in the way – like car pooling to a basketball game, learning to drive or later in life kids…the very people who enjoy bikes the most.  Somewhere along the line, we all forgot that bikes are fun and extremely practical.

With all the talk about eco-friendly everything, we forget that the best form of transportation is a little invention from 19th century Europe.  The bicycle is a no gas, high mileage miracle.

Some vendors are capitalizing on this movement by providing a range of bike components that cut down on the excuses to own a car.

Anyone know of a 3 to 4 seat trailer option for kids?  They all seem to stop at 2 kids?

As for company kudos.  The New Belgium Brewery (Fort Collins, Colorado) gives a bicycle to all employees who have been with the company for over a year.  My hat is off to them.

Competition and Kids

As fathers we see it all the time.  Our kids compete with each other from day one.  I am convinced it is wired into our DNA as humans. Our kids fight to be faster, stronger, smarter, louder… the list goes on.  Whatever the activity, one kid will make a competition out of it and off everyone goes.

I think this is healthy.  For one, it teaches kids to push themselves.  They find out that they may NOT be the fastest, strongest, smartest kid in ONE activity but they ARE the fastest, strongest, smartest kid in ANOTHER activity.

Over time, kids should find out what they are talented at and love doing.  Sometimes parents get a bit too involved and interrupt the natural learning process.

PS – I don’t think being the fastest, strongest, smartest at XBox, Playstation, or Nintendo counts.  But then again, there are plenty of people being the fastest, strongest, smartest at Second Life and making real world money at it too…hmmm

Cirque du Soleil

Awesome is the best way to describe a Cirque du Soleil show.  If you have the opportunity to attend a show, don’t pass it up!  And if you are a member of Netflix – get a DVD version in your queue.

My kids watched a Cirque du Soleil show several months ago on DVD.  They were fascinated by the acrobatic capabilities of the performers.  A Cirque show embodies so many elements of childhood – fantasy, color, music and drama.  Cirque captures the essence of creativity and brings it to the stage every day.

But just like parenting, business and anything else worthwhile in life, they have to work HARD to keep that spark alive.

I highly recommend a book by Lyn Heward, the former creative executive at Cirque du Soliel.  You won’t be disappointed

The Spark:  Igniting The Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All

Double Standards

Don’t you just hate it when you feel a double standard coming your way? Well here is a story with a twist.

One Saturday morning, while my wife worked on the edits for her recently released book, I decided to load up the three little kids and go to the coffee shop. Now this is not a unique thing for me. I have ventured on more than one occasion to do the weekly shopping with all three in tow. As any mom or dad would say, three kids that young in the grocery store is an adventure saga in itself and should be approached with trepidation. But the coffee shop? It was the perfect, low stress outing.

Around Bozeman, you actually see a healthy number of dads that are really engaged with their kids. So, seeing the dads “solo” with the little ones shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Except, apparently, the day I arrived with all at the coffee shop. I had just finished ordering the drinks for the kids and securing a place in the least disruptive spot to avoid upsetting customers that may be taking their AM Saturday stroll to read the paper and unwind for the weekend. Everyday is a weekend for kids and some adults don’t always appreciate kid levels of energy and enthusiasm around them at 9:00 AM.

It was crowded so we ended up sitting down next to an older lady (maybe in her late 70’s or early 80’s). I sat playing with the kids and reading from the heavily loved books. I noticed that she kept looking over at me. She had a big smile but a perplexed look in her face. I could tell that she just wanted to say something but was holding it back.

Another 5 minutes passed and I could see she was about ready to explode if she couldn’t ask me a question….and then it came.

“Honey, where is your wife?”

“Excuse me?” I answered as politely as possible since she really did look sweet and truly perplexed.

“Where is your wife? You are here with kids and you have no wife?”

I was so taken aback by the comment I really didn’t know what to say. Where do I start…

1) Should I be upset that she thinks I can’t take care of three little kids?
2) Should I be upset that even if she did see I was taking great care of them, that it was assumed that only a woman should be out on a Saturday doing something with children (and as a man I wasn’t playing baseball with them)?
3) Did she wonder if my spouse left me, divorced me, passed away? I have no idea.

If fact, I think all of these things were going through her head and probably more.

I just smiled at her and in my matter-of-fact way, let her know that I was out with the kids having fun while my wife worked on finishing a book she was writing.

The lady just stared at me for a moment, smiled and said, “well isn’t that nice.”

I couldn’t tell if she was saying it with sarcasm like “why is my wife working on something other than taking care of the kids” or “wow, that is really cool you are doing this.”

I really don’t know what to make of the situation other than it really hit home just how much in the world stays the same and changes all at once. Fifty years ago you probably wouldn’t have seen a guy out with his three kids all by himself unless it was some special reason. And even if I think the situation was perfectly normal, the fact of the matter is…she represents the attitudes and assumptions that are still prevalent in our culture today.

The double standard cuts both ways and it isn’t fun when you feel you are on the short end of the stick.

Airplanes, Kids and Yes…the Grumpy Business Person

Every business man or woman has the story. 

“I was on flight from X to Z when this 2 year old kid screamed and kicked behind me (or beside me) the entire flight.” 

Yep, we have all had them.  And yes, it is no fun.  In fact, it is even less fun for the parent(s) because they know they are in a plane and can’t escape with their kid to redirect their tantrum somewhere else.  Been there, experienced that!

Well today, flying from Bozeman to Denver, I was treated to the opposite.  An 18 month old girl was in a seat in the row behind me.  She started to fuss and cry as the plane took off.  Even as a dad of three small kids, I was bracing for the worse.  I could tell her parents were straining to distract her in anyway possible.  Then this business lady next to them took off her colorful beaded necklace and handed it to the mom. 

Wow, that was smart!  Not only was it “colorful” but it was from a “stranger.”  For many 18 month olds this is about as good as it comes.  Within minutes the girl was giggling and having the best time in the world with the necklace.  She continued to smile, giggle the remainder of the flight.

And you know what, you could just feel the tension in the plane drop.  What would have been another energy sapping business flight turned out to make me smile.

I guess I may need to add a colorful beaded necklace to my travel briefcase!  I even made sure to congratulate the parents for making it through a successful plane trip with their daughter.  I never want to be one of those grumpy business people!